Heading in ‘Right Direction’

Jim Kinnier, who coaches the combined Ross-Pierson boys and girls track teams, a program now in its fourth year, said during a recent conversation that “we’re headed in the right direction. I’ve got 25 boys and girls, the most I’ve ever had.”
The boys and girls teams each have a win thus far, lopsided ones over their Babylon counterparts, though, at the time of the conversation, Ross-Pierson’s teams had suffered losses by similar margins to Port Jefferson and Center Moriches.
As for the boys, Kinnier said Khalid Al-Mahmoud, a Ross student from Qatar, had turned in “fine times in the 100 and 200 — a 12.2 in the 100, which isn’t bad, not far off the school record, 11.6.”
Another Ross student, Kayla Jerido, also a sprinter, who played Amateur Athletic Union basketball last spring, has run a 13.5 in the 100, said Kinnier, “a very good time for a girl.”
Moreover, a Pierson sophomore, Oliver Lauro, a sprinter, had run a 12.4 in the 100, and Marco Lanuto’s 57.9 in the 400, he said, was “very good for a sophomore — he has a very nice future.”
Elena Skerys, who ran cross-country for Pierson in the fall, has run a 5:54 in the 1,500, which, said Kinnier, “isn’t bad.” Among his male distance runners, “the best miler I have is also a shot-putter — Ross Kadri, a 220-pound Ross senior. He placed second in the Katy’s Courage 5K, and he’s run the 1,600 in 5:15 . . . he’s an incredible athlete.”
“Over all,” Kinnier said in conclusion, “I’m really very happy. . . . We’ve been practicing at Ross and at East Hampton, where we use the long jump and triple jump pit and the high-jumping pit. We’re at East Hampton once or twice a week.”
Kinnier said he hoped to have “three or four or five kids compete in individual events in the division meet and a couple of relay teams.”